Sensory Silhouettes
RISD Museum X VTRG Collaboration
In July 2023, I partnered with the Virtual Textiles Research Group and the RISD Museum in Providence, RI, to reimagine South Asian museum fabrics through an exhibition that merged digital and physical materials, animating textiles that could not otherwise be touched.
Garments are meant to be worn and therefore felt. When they are presented behind glass in a museum, our experience is limited only to seeing them. In this collaboration between RISD’s Virtual Textiles Research Group (VTRG) and the RISD Museum’s Costume and Textiles Department, the textures, colors, and histories of South Asian textiles converge. Centering cultural associations, memories, and place-based details, we selected four garments in the museum’s collection for their distinctive sensory properties and richness of hand, as well as the stories of cultural exchange and collaboration embedded in their making. We encourage you to contemplate these historical textiles, consider the material modeling and garment simulation in the projected video, access audio narrations via the QR code, and gently touch the examples provided at the ends of the cases.
Understanding how textiles are made is important to translating their sensory properties to virtual materials
Digital material modeling can bring historical textiles and garments to life.
Digital materials are created using physically based renderings (PBRs) that separate the textile's surface texture into multiple optical channels.
Doing this provides a more accurate picture of how different materials and textures interact with light in a virtual environment.
